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If I take a taxi to the airport, it is still the same number of miles driven as if I'd driven my own car (41). The cab also has to come from somewhere and go somewhere else once they drop me off. (Granted at the airport they could probably pick up a fare and drive them back to the city or to home.) It's probably more miles driven that if I drove my car. The main reason to take a taxi to the airport is to not have to pay for parking while you're gone, but the cost of a cab more than makes up for that except for a very long trip.

You are way over-estimating with "hundreds of people" a day, too. How many runs do you suppose a taxi-driver makes in a day? 10? That's a pretty full cab to even get 100, let alone multiples of that.

The difference between a cab and a passenger car is that the taxi gets more hours of use per day than the passenger car that sits in the parking lot or garage all day. Assuming th average cab drivers shift is 8 hours. In my neck of the woods, people rarely take cab rides for more than 15 minutes. And the cabbies either wait at a taxi stand or other central location. The cabbie at the train station near my house usually makes 10 minute or less trips.

For a typical hour the cabbie could fit feasibly fit in 3 fares, so an 8 hour shift would be between 15-20 fares per day.

The difference between a cab and a passenger car is that the taxi gets more hours of use per day than the passenger car that sits in the parking lot or garage all day. Assuming th average cab drivers shift is 8 hours. In my neck of the woods, people rarely take cab rides for more than 15 minutes. And the cabbies either wait at a taxi stand or other central location. The cabbie at the train station near my house usually makes 10 minute or less trips.

For a typical hour the cabbie could fit feasibly fit in 3 fares, so an 8 hour shift would be between 15-20 fares per day.

From downtown Denver to the airport is 30 miles/40 min. To take one fare out there, and return someone, would take 80 min (this per google maps) plus wait time. Around town, yes, probably 15-20 min/trip, but there's also wait time.

So what if the cab gets used all day if it's just taking 1-2 people at a time somewhere? That's just like driving a car.

I'm not sure what the debate about taxis is about, but the benefit of taking a taxi to the airport is that you don't have to drive your own car and then have to pay to have it sit around in a parking lot or garage somewhere. Taxis are a useful transportation supplement for both those who own cars and those who don't. We've always taken taxis or public transportation to the airport even when we did own a car. Those who own cars might also find taxis convenient at other times, as there are always some situations in life where one doesn't want to drive or can't drive. After a night at a bar, after some medical appointments, after dropping off the car for repairs, maybe if going or coming from somewhere with tight or expensive parking. In any case, taxis are handy to have around, whether or not one uses public transportation. And in some places they really ARE public transportation; when I lived in a town of 13,000 people there was no bus, but obviously some people weren't able to own or drive cars. There was a taxi service in town, and they would often combine people for shared rides.

If you had been following the thread, you would see that the debate is whether taxis are more energy efficient than using a private car. At least that's how I see it. Someone stated a taxi can carry hundreds of people per day; someone else pointed out that taxis are in use 8 hrs/day. I dispute the first, and don't really know what the point is about the second.

When you live 40+ miles from the airport, it is cheaper to drive to the airport and pay to park your car unless you're going on a very long trip.

And it would probably be even cheaper to take a train or bus to the airport if one exists and would probably be more relevant to the thread or at least the original title.

Huh? I'm not the one who said taxis are a form of public transportation, and started this discussion about them.

We have Sky Ride, $13 OW per person; $52 for a couple RT. If you drove your car out there (80 miles, ~4 gal. of gas at $3.50/g=$14), you could park for 6 days at $6/day for less than the bus fare. If you stayed a week, it would cost $2 more to drive. Plus, you have to get someone to take you to/from the Park "N Ride, b/c you can't leave a car there overnight.

Huh? I'm not the one who said taxis are a form of public transportation, and started this discussion about them.

Ah. I didn't bother to read the whole discussion on taxis.

Quote:

We have Sky Ride, $13 OW per person; $52 for a couple RT. If you drove your car out there (80 miles, ~4 gal. of gas at $3.50/g=$14), you could park for 6 days at $6/day for less than the bus fare. If you stayed a week, it would cost $2 more to drive. Plus, you have to get someone to take you to/from the Park "N Ride, b/c you can't leave a car there overnight.

It hadn't occurred to me that long term airport parking could be as cheap as $6 a day, I had assumed it's quite a bit higher. I checked what the parking rates are for the closest international airport near me and it too is cheap at $6-$8 /day but I've never used it. The airport I've most used is NYC's JFK airport, where long term parking rates are higher.

I was also assuming that you'd be going to the airport by yourself, which tilts the balances towards public transportation even more.

It hadn't occurred to me that long term airport parking could be as cheap as $6 a day, I had assumed it's quite a bit higher. I checked what the parking rates are for the closest international airport near me and it too is cheap at $6-$8 /day but I've never used it. The airport I've most used is NYC's JFK airport, where long term parking rates are higher.

I was also assuming that you'd be going to the airport by yourself, which tilts the balances towards public transportation even more.

Yes, we can park at DIA for $6/day. For a single person, pubic transit wins. For a family with two teens, it's $104 on the Sky Ride. (Little kids ride free, 1 per adult, I believe.)

Going back to the original post, the full cost of a drive-and-park to the airport should really include some of the costs of owning, insuring, maintaining, fueling, registering, etc., the personal family car. When you pay for a cab ride, those costs are folded into the cost of the ride.

Actually, I was the one who said cabs were a form of public transit--because it is true! Cabs, like other forms of transit, do better in areas of relatively higher density--in a dense city, a good cabbie can easily pick up more than 2-3 fares an hour, as most trips are relatively short (the trip to the airport is kind of a "plum" fare.) And they do more poorly in spread-out, low-density areas, because there are fewer potential fares.

And yes, like other forms of public transit, the "footprint" of a cab is less than of someone in a car. Maybe less efficient than a streetcar or LRV, but they do reduce the number of parking spaces and cars needed in a system--because the use of the single car is divided up amongst individuals. Both the energy required to make the car, as well as the energy to move it around, are part of the system. So while a cab driving to the airport uses the same gas as a single car, the other energy costs are shared. And yes, most car drivers don't take into account the costs of purchasing, storing, maintaining and insuring a car.

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